How to Play Backgammon

Playing Backgammon online is no different from playing it in an actual casino. Everything are the same -- the materials needed, the basic rules, the strategies, the excitement, and the high payout -- except that you are getting all of them in their Internet version.

To play Backgammon online, you must first enter a casino site and register an account there. Once you are in, you can already choose to play not just Backgammon but other casino favorites as well in either practice or real cash games. If you prefer practice games, you may download the game software on your desktop and presto you can play Backgammon anytime you wish to do so. If you are a daring soul, however, and would want to try a hand at winning -- or losing -- you may deposit an amount into your account, which will be used to enter you in real money games.

Basically, Backgammon is about a board, two sets of checkers, and some dice. Two opposing players can sit down to play Backgammon. Both are given equal number of checkers, which are colored differently and which are to be placed accordingly on their own side of the board. All fifteen checkers of a player must reach their home board and then disappear from it one by one before the other player achieves the same goal. Naturally, the first player who was able to bear off all his checkers gets the prize pot.

This process of playing Backgammon is, as you have guessed, governed by certain rules. The checkers are arranged in certain starting positions. Their movement on the board is determined through a roll of a dice. The same set of dice is also used to determine the player who moves first. After the first move, the players roll and move their checkers alternately. The movement of the checkers are strictly in a forward fashion. Facing the board, your home base is usually on the right side and your opponent's on the left. This means that your checkers' movement should be from left to right and your opponent's on the opposite. The battle is in the form of whose checkers rightly own a specific point in the board at a time. Each players' two dice would obviously reveal different set of numbers. This number combination can be used in either way of movement for as long as it is legal to do so. For example, if you roll a three and a two, you can either move one checker five spaces or two different checkers in different positions: the first one will be moved three spaces while the other one will be moved two spaces. Also, moving over the bar does not count as one but crossing from a point on one side of the bar to the other does. What are legal movements? Well, a player cannot land on a point where two or more of his opponent's checkers are in. There is also the doubling rule, where a player who rolls the same number in both dice needs to use the number of movements four times. If, for example, you rolled a double two, you must use a combination of movements that are equivalent to eight.

If you play Backgammon, you will obviously be faced with endless possibilities. As such, your win depends on your craftiness in making crucial game decisions at every single move. So if you intend to win, you must first reassess your skills. Play Backgammon only if you are sure enough that you have what it takes to purse the jackpot.